Skullwinder
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Freeform Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Skullwinder

Creature — Snake

Deathtouch (Any amount of damage this deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.)

When Skullwinder enters the battlefield, return target card from your graveyard to your hand, then choose an opponent. That player returns a card from their graveyard to their hand.

hyalopterouslemur on Thinking about how we evaluate …

8 months ago

Well, my point was originally that what matters depends on your deck. (I forgot Birthing Pod shenanigans.) And that YouTubers need to understand, you can't just say this card rox/this card sux.

Re: Skullwinder, it's because it's not really card advantage, I'd imagine. Neither is Regrowth, but there's just a prejudice against giving opponents options. (Group hug does nothing but enable combo degeneracy.)

DreadKhan on Thinking about how we evaluate …

8 months ago

If you get sweaty and run Noxious Revival you can pay no mana to have even more versatility (you can give someone ELSE back something instead, which can be huge). If you've built a really strong deck the idea of paying 3 mana to get a single card back (at sorcery speed!) is laughable, that's pretty much giving up your whole turn without committing something important to the board (like Rhystic Study) or attempting a win (Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation is also 3 mana). That's why Noxious Revival is the best option in the eyes of many very competitive players, so I think it applies to most Bracket 4 and 5 decks, where pure card quality is so important. If you're playing in Bracket 3 and under what you want are card synergies, you need bad cards that become powerful when used together IMHO. Personally I try to avoid running recursion effects that are one dimensional at this point, power creep has given us better options in a lot of cases, if you're in Black something like Lively Dirge can get back creatures, but it can also tutor one up if you don't have anything to get back.

All that said there is a plurality of creature decks out there, and in those lists Eternal Witness can make a lot more sense.

I'm also a tad curious why Skullwinder isn't one of the options, it's bad if you usually have worse cards than your opponents (if you get back a Grizzly Bears and they get Questing Beast you'd have been better off with E-Wit), but the ceiling is very high on it if you can make a deal with an opponent (this is also a great example of recursion with added upside that makes it more versatile). I think in a lower power game Skullwinder plays pretty well, it's even easier to cast if your mana base is janky. I've heard some people really hate Skullwinder, has anyone ever tried using it and can give some salient reasons why they didn't like it?

Snap157 on Budget Meren

1 year ago

Meren as a commander really pushes you to build with a high density of creatures-which are currently only a third of your deck. In this case I would cut most of your non-creature ramp for cheap mana dorks (Somberwald Sage, Arbor Elf, Fyndhorn Elves, maybe even Viridian Emissary, Solemn Simulacrum or Springbloom Druid).

I would also do the same with your other critical deck areas such as removal, draw, boardwipes, sac outlets. I would cut Alesha's Legacy, Overwhelming Remorse, and Putrefy in favor of Merciless Executioner, Insidious Fungus, Grist, the Hunger Tide, Foundation Breaker, and Acidic Slime. Also with more creatures gives us better tutor options: Fauna Shaman is worth the money here, and Jarad's Orders is super efficient. Mausoleum Secrets is kinda cool but it only grabs black creatures which I don't like- up to you if you want to keep it.

Drawing cards is overrated in this deck- your hand IS your graveyard. I would lose the Village Rites, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Bastion of Remembrance and Disciple of Bolas to bring in cards like Golgari Thug, Stitcher's Supplier, Skull Prophet, or Satyr Wayfinder. Nyx Weaver and Golgari Grave-Troll are an absolute must.

Not sure terastadon belongs here, as much as I love it. It's nice as a reanimation target but meren will have trouble bringing it back and the deck isn't ramp heavy enough to reliably have the mana to cast it. Instead, maybe a Skullwinder or Junji, the Midnight Sky to give you some added recursion.

You may want to also add in about 5 cheap nonbasics. Temple of Malady, Woodland Cemetery, Dakmor Salvage, Tainted Wood, Twilight Mire, Viridescent Bog, Necroblossom Snarl are all very solid choices. Lands entering tapped won't be a super large issue if you stick to 5 or so but you will definitely notice the mana smoothing and appreciate it.

Hope this helps!

Quickspell on Build a Deck with Me …

2 years ago

If I may add a few other notes to your thought process.

At this point, you are already on the track of using known combos and putting them into a Naya shell. There are many other combos that can go with this, you just need to tutor for them.

Note that haste is an important aspect to this. Zealous Conscripts is much better than Hyrax Tower Scout or Sparring Mummy for this reason, even though both have cheaper mana value. Without haste, your million tokens will just be board-wiped. You could argue for redundancy, but the truth is that tutors and recursion such as Eternal Witness and Skullwinder are much better, because they add to your strategy with more flexibility.

Most creature tutors are green non-creature spells that search for green creatures. However, you want to keep the amount of non-creature spells low, because Ghired's ability doesn't apply to them. But there are some great tutors that can help you find your pieces:

Most of these cards use ETBs. If you can give them haste - ideally with creatures - you can cast them, make use of their ETB, and directly tap them with Ghired for value. Anger comes to mind, Hellraiser Goblin is great (you won't be attacking, because you are going to tap your creatures with Ghired), Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods can be okay. As for non-creature spells, you have Mass Hysteria, Concordant Crossroads, Fervor, Rising of the Day. Though I would probably only consider Hammer of Purphoros as it can create tokens.

As for the token doublers, I'm not sure if they really fit the deck. Sure, they are staples for token strategies. But what's the point of making infinite tokens go double? Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  Flip will put a bounty on your head which is not a good thing in a combo-deck. You want to stay under the radar until you can go off.
Mondrak only doubles creature tokens, so you are not making more treasures. And the other doublers like Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives etc. will not tap with Ghired. Since you also want to put in all the other Naya-staple enchantments like Smothering Tithe and Guardian Project etc., you will just fill your deck with non-creatures that don't synergize with your commander.

Some cards worth mentioning are:
- Illusionist's Bracers - Cloudstone Curio (create a creature token, return a creature with an ETB to your hand). - Helm of the Host

DreadKhan on Goose Mother Voltron

2 years ago

Mark of Sakiko or Bear Umbra might do some work, mostly to enable you to play a lot more stuff? Belt of Giant Strength seems synergistic, it stacks with your +1 counters. Crystal Shard is a pretty good way to get your Commander back in hand, but it can also be used to punish any player who dares use all their mana up (some players are really bad at tracking stuff like this, depending on the playgroup). Rogue's Passage is an interesting way to guarantee the survival of your Goose. If you want more mass removal I have had some luck with Mass Manipulation, it's hard to cast but the effect is pretty strong if you steal more than 1 thing.

I'm not sure if your Goose gets big enough or not, but Tempting Licid is a decent Lure effect, and you can technically attach it to an opponent's creature that attacks (and remove it after blockers are declared) to either wipe out blockers (letting you/others get in) or get a creature killed, you can also use it to put a Lure on something you don't care about so The Goose can get in unblocked (you can save the Licid).

When it comes to ramp and fixing, I find 2 colour decks are extremely forgiving, and having one of those colours be Green makes it even easier to build. One of the annoyances of Enemy Pair decks (like Simic) is that their aren't as many dual lands to choose from, but their are still a few budget range dual lands that come with basic land types, these really pop with stuff like Nature's Lore, which can find a non-Basic Forest, enabling you to get your colours quickly and consistently, but IMHO it's really hard to not hit your colours in a Simic deck. It's really annoying that the only 'budget' typed dual I can think of is Breeding Pool, but that's a long way from budget, and you're only in 2 colours.

If you like +1 counters and drawing cards you might enjoy Generous Patron, if you're desperate you can give your own stuff the counters, but if you want cards you can do so (and still have a body). Another card that might be generally useful is Skullwinder, you can use this to generate political leverage, possibly getting to choose what the opponent will actually get back. Cultural Exchange is an obscure card that can very much take over a game if you time it right, ideally you use it after people have already wiped and hopefully don't have another at the ready. Mass Diminish might be better than Frogify, note that it lasts until your next turn and affects all of a player's creature, yet still comes with Flashback to boot. This is very good with something like Tempting Licid. Transmogrifying Wand might not look very good, but being able to remove the 3 most annoying creatures for a grand total of only 6 mana is pretty sweet, it's also a great deterrent piece once it's out and still has counters, people can't play key creatures until it's dealt with or out of counters. Return of the Wildspeaker is a good way to refill your hand, it's among the best of it's kind, but Momentous Fall is better if you're being wiped or something.

Darb_the_Bard on Buttercup: Princess Bride

2 years ago

rwn1971 Your criticism of Skullwinder is fair. I agree that in a 1-on-1 situation it can feel bad. However, with 2 or more opponents it becomes a political card and you have the potential to make a beneficial deal with whichever opponent gets the card. Of course, if you are the archenemy then it may be that no opponent will cooperate, but even in that situation it's possible (depending on your meta, likely?) that at least one opponent has nothing threatening in their graveyard. I am hesitant to remove any graveyard recursion as I'm afraid we may often be a target for removal (since tutors tend to be pretty good...) and I think it may be important to be able to replay some of our key cards like Jegantha, Odric, or Jodah. Of course, I can't get a feel for how often this will come up until getting in a bunch of games with actual opponents.

Other ways to get stuff from our graveyard include: Bala Ged Recovery  Flip, Kethis, the Hidden Hand, Nashi, Moon's Legacy, and Kenrith, the Returned King. Three of these sources can even be tutored for with Buttercup, so perhaps you're right that Skullwinder is unnecessary. For now, I'll put in Jhoira for Skullwinder. This means losing another deathtouch creature, but perhaps at this point we just find other ways to give all our creatures deathtouch.

That brings us to Ankle Shanker. If it were legendary, I think it would be an auto-include. As is, we can't tutor for it and the three colored pips in the mana cost are all downside since they won't buff Buttercup at all. It might still be worth it as an alternative way to give everything deathtouch for Westley, but I'll have to think about it. Again, it's getting harder for me to make cuts...

As for Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim, I like that card and have even thought about creating another deck with it as my commander, but I'm not sure it has enough synergy for what I want to do. Yes, it's legendary and two colors and has deathtouch, but its other effects won't really do much in this deck.

Would you take out Mirkwood Spider, Wasteland Viper, or Tidehollow Strix for one or both of those cards? Or is there another card that should be on the chopping block?

rwn1971 on Buttercup: Princess Bride

2 years ago

If any card i think it should be Skullwinder as this does benefit your opponent and i would rather have the card draw and pump up my commander from Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain than give my opponent a regrowth.

Lycheex on Lycheex

3 years ago

Hi beebles_elbow, thanks for the comment.

I completely agree with your take that the strength of the deck is the turn 1 win likelihood, however I don't want to be content with defeating non-blue players. The fact that the deck doesn't do numbers is because the "typical" lists don't work in the current Legacy meta. Most (all?) storm decks forgo some explosiveness to run some protection. I hope to find the right build that allows The Spanish Inquisition to do so as well. It's obviously easier said than done.

I think that I would've agreed with your take before, but the inclusion of Grief really changed my perspective. It's an incredible card for the deck as it provides a ton of mana in combination with Culling the Weak and Burnt Offering and you also happen to be able to discard a card from your opponents hand. If we could run 2-4 extra interactive cards, it could really elevate the deck. Again, finding the right build is proving to be a challenge.

I do partially agree with your take that Aeve, Progenitor Ooze is not good. While I don't think it's actively bad, it falls into a category of cards that I've tried before that are serviceable tech cards. And I would label Aeve as the best of these tech cards. I would include Skullwinder in the category as well. These cards are only good in certain situations, but mostly tend to be dead draws. I would like to replace these cards and run better cards, but I haven't been able to find.

I've actually recently built a new version of the deck called The Burning Inquition in which I tried to alleviate this exact problem. I feel that it has potential, here's a link if you're interested: The Burning Inquisition.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents. I just want to try and make the best as it can be, but I could be completely wrong about my takes.

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